First Day Of Issue Inaugurating USPS

Hi all,
I found a First Day of Issue envelope Inaugurating the USPS from July 1, 1971. In addition to the actual envelope and the stamp on the envelope, there are the remaining 11 stamps inside the envelope. Could anyone give me any more information on this? value, etc. Thanks for your help.

Scott #1396 catalogues .25¢ (the minimum) as a single stamp. The FDC catalogues $1.00. Scott does note that "first day cancels from over 16,000 different cities are known. Some are rare"

Keep in mind that actual sales prices are typically fractions of catalog values so the expected sales price would be more in the range of 25 cents to 50 cents. As for the 11 mint stamps inside they can still be used as postage and their value as postage is higher than what they would bring from a collector. Such old postage typically sells in the range of 70 to 80 cents per dollar of face value. The reason is that using old stamps for postage today requires a person to use just the right combination of stamps to make the current rate of 47 cents for a 1 ounce or less first class letter, or whatever the postage for the given piece of mail might be. That is a bother for most people and so the going rate for such old stamps tends to be 70 to 80 percent of the face value. This is true for almost every stamp issued from the 1940s until today with very few exceptions.

The values quoted are valid for FDOI cancellations or cancellations from any city/town that are very common. However, there are MANY that have a value exceeding $10. It would pay for one interested in this issue to peruse the website at http://www.remcatalog.com/. Estimated values are listed for all known city/state locations with research data backing up the estimation.

A nice collection:


https://goscf.com/t/50953#50953

July 1, 1971. A very sad day, indeed. I still miss the USPO.

Jack Kelley

Here's a few I've got.




I wonder if Gas and Iola Kansas are on the list of 'rare' cities.

edit - a quick look on the website linked above shows me that Gas KS has a catalogue value of $12 while Iola is only $6.